La Jolla Playhouse has announced the full cast for “Redwood,” the musical starring Tony-winner Idina Menzel opening next month in its world premiere.
Menzel leads the cast as Jesse, a successful but heartbroken businesswoman, mother and wife, who takes a break from her East Coast life to find healing and community in Northern California’s redwood forest.
Actress Idina Menzel.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
Also featured in the cast are Broadway actors De’Adre Aziza (Tony nominee for “Passing Strange”) as “Mel,” Nkeki Obi-Melekwe (“Tina”) as ““Becca,” Michael Park (“Dear Evan Hanson”) as “Finn,” and Zachary Noah Piser (“KPOP”) as “Spencer.” San Diego actors Giovanny Diaz de Leon and Lance Arthur Smith are serving as understudies on the production.
“Redwood” was co-conceived by Landau and Menzel. Landau also wrote the book, co-wrote the lyrics with composer Kate Diaz and is directing the production. The production is sold out.
Playwright Karen Zacarías.
(Courtesy of the Old Globe)
Cast announced for Globe’s ‘Innocence’
The Old Globe has also announced the cast for its upcoming world premiere play “The Age of Innocence” by playwright Karen Zacarías, whose telenovela-inspired comedy “Destiny of Desire” played at the Globe last year.
Zacarías is adapting her play from the 1920 novel by Edith Wharton. Set during New York City in the Gilded Age, it’s the story of how the arrival of a glamorous countess from Europe breaks hearts and stirs up controversy in the 1870s. It will be directed by Chay Yew. It plays Feb. 8 through March 10.
The production will star a number of Broadway and television actors. Shereen Ahmed (“Light in the Piazza”) leads the cast as Countess Ellen Olenska and Callum Adams (of CBS’ “Blue Bloods”) stars as attorney Newland Archer, who falls in love with her. Also featured are Delphi Borich as May (“Camelot” and “Into the Woods”); Barzin Akhavan as Beaufort (“The Kite Runner”); Eva Kaminsky (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”) as Narrator; Mahira Kakkar (“Life of Pi”) as Mrs. Welland and Medora Manson; Rami Margron (The Old Globe’s “Hurricane Diane”) as Mrs. Archer and Regina Beaufort. Also featured are San Diego actors Mike Sears and Sophia Oberg, as well as Socorro Santiago and Michael Underhill.
Playwright Lynn Nottage, photographed on May 23, 2022, in New York.
(Andy Kropa / Andy Kropa/invision/ap)
Nottage x3
It’s pretty common for the same plays, musicals and playwrights to end up represented onstage at multiple San Diego County theaters in the same year.
Sometimes it’s related to when rights for certain works become available. Sometimes it’s when a particular playwright or composer has become hot, thanks to successful Broadway production. And sometimes it’s in response to world events — like an upcoming election, war, socio-economic change or a global pandemic — that influences artistic directors to choose scripts with topical themes. But there’s also serendipity, since many artistic directors plan their seasons unaware of what their neighbors have lined up.
Several of these factors played into the fact that three works by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage are appearing on San Diego stages this winter.
“Intimate Apparel,” a touching 2003 drama about a lonely Black seamstress in 1905 Manhattan, is now playing through Feb. 4 at North Coast Repertory Theatre.
Coming up next month at Moxie Theatre is Nottage’s “Clyde’s,” a 2021 Broadway comedy about a multiracial group of formerly incarcerated people who work together at a truck stop diner. It plays Feb. 4 through March 10. “Clyde’s” was named the most-produced play in America in 2022, and was No. 2 in 2023, according to American Theater magazine, which each year surveys the seasons of more than 550 theaters nationwide to spot trends. “Clyde’s” was produced at 14 U.S. theaters last year.
And finally in March, the national touring production of “MJ the Musical” arrives at the San Diego Civic Theatre. It will play March 5 -10. Nottage wrote the book for the Michael Jackson jukebox musical and Christopher Wheeldon designed the choreography. “MJ” focuses on of Jackson’s early recording career, culminating with his 1992 Dangerous World Tour. The musical was scheduled to premiere on Broadway in 2020 but the pandemic pushed its opening back to February 2022.
Years ago, Black playwrights like Nottage only had their work produced in the month of February, which is Black History Month, but nowadays their works are not only being presented year-round but also in greater numbers.